Playboy Hits the Brakes on Brett Ratner’s Hugh Hefner Biopic

Collaborators have already started to back away from director-producer Brett Ratner, mere hours after six women went on the record accusing him of sexual harassment. One of the biggest upcoming projects on his slate was a biopic of the late Hugh Hefner, which Ratner had said was set to star Jared Leto. However, representatives for Playboy have announced that, due to the allegations against Ratner, that film is now on hold.

“We are deeply troubled to learn about the accusations against Brett Ratner. We find this kind of behavior completely unacceptable,” a Playboy spokesperson said in a statement to TheWrap. “We are putting all further development of our projects with RatPac Entertainment on hold until we are able to review the situation further.”

RatPac Entertainment is Ratner’s production and financing company, which has since partnered with Dune Entertainment. RatPac-Dune also has a deal with Warner Bros. Recently, Ratner has produced blockbuster films like The Revenant and Horrible Bosses; the last feature he directed was Hercules in 2014, starring Dwayne Johnson.

In addition to Playboy halting the film, representatives for Leto have now said that the Oscar winner was never even attached to this project in the first place: “Jared Leto is not and was not attached to a Brett Ratner directed Hugh Hefner film, nor will he be working with him in the future. Earlier reports were incorrect and not confirmed by his representatives,” they said in an e-mail to Vanity Fair.

The statement is a world away from Ratner’s own remarks in early October, when he said that Leto was one of the first actors to reach out to him about the part. “Jared is an old friend,” he told The Hollywood Reporter then. “When he heard I got the rights to Hef’s story, he told me, ‘I want to play him. I want to understand him.’ And I really believe Jared can do it. He’s one of the great actors of today.”

Leto’s rebuke of the project and Playboy’s new decision to halt the biopic follows W.B.’s recent announcement it is aware of the allegations against Ratner, and is “reviewing the situation”—indicating that like Harvey Weinstein,James Toback, and Kevin Spacey before him, Ratner may face serious consequences for his alleged actions.

In a widely shared Los Angeles Times piece on Wednesday, six women accused Ratner of sexual misconduct. Their stories are all tied together in certain ways—they were often young, aspiring performers, looking to get a break in the industry, when Ratner allegedly pursued them, offering small parts in his movies in exchange for sexual favors or masturbating in front of them. One of the women, Eri Sasaki, says that when she rejected him, he replied: “Don’t you want to be famous?”

Actress Olivia Munn is also among the women who accused Ratner of misconduct. She told the Times that back in 2004, when she was an up-and-coming actress, Ratner masturbated in front of her in his trailer. When Munn brought the issue to an attorney, she was told it would be fruitless to go after a powerful director. “That did leave an impact on me,” she said. “How broken do women have to be before people listen?”

Ratner’s attorney, Martin Singer, has denied all of the claims on the director’s behalf, responding to each individual allegation. In response to Munn’s claims, Singer said the pair had “an intimate relationship.” The actress pushed back on this characterization, calling it “a complete lie.”

In 2016, Klum enlisted the help of five models, some wigs, and a bunch of prosthetics in order to clone herself.

Photo: By Presley Ann/PatrickMcMullan.com

Klum spent seven hours in the makeup chair to re-create Michael Jackson’s look from the “Thriller” music video.

Photo: By Monica Schipper/WireImage.

At her Halloween party in 2000, Klum dressed in head-to-toe black. Perhaps as a goth Pippi Longstocking? Who’s to say!

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In 2001, Klum arrived on horseback as her own version of Lady Godiva, complete with a bedazzled white bodysuit, blonde wig, and fake blood dripping from her mouth.

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Klum did her best Betty Boop in a short red dress, satin gloves, and cartoonish eye makeup in 2002.

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Klum was all about gold in 2003. Her costume included gold teeth, gold body glitter, and gold hair ribbons. (2003)

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Never one to approach a classic Halloween costume typically, Klum went as a witch in 2004, but one that dressed in all red and carried a skeleton on her back.

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Klum took her vampire costume to the next level with a sky-high wig and thigh-high boots in 2005.

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It‘s never the wrong time for a biblical lesson. In 2006, Klum dressed as the forbidden fruit in a large apple costume while she was pregnant in order to make sure her “belly was well-protected.”

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Klum kept it a little simple (for her) in 2007, dressing as a cat, whiskers and collar included.

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After a trip to India, Klum was inspired to dress up as Hindu goddess Kali in 2008, which inevitably stirred up controversy. “It was actually my assistant's idea. [Seal] and I were in India last year, so she said, ‘Why don't you do an Indian goddess? Like a scary Indian goddess?’ And I said ‘O.K.!’,” she reportedly said during the party. “So then she Googled around and she found Kali and showed me a picture, and I loved it.”

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Klum and then-husband Seal went as crows in 2009, wearing beaks that we can only imagine were a little cumbersome.

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Her superhero-meets-alien costume from 2010 looked like it was ripped from the pages of a comic book.

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The “visible woman” costume from 2011 was hand-painted to match Klum’s own body structure.

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Klum’s ape costume (for her second Halloween party of the year in 2011) involved a lot of prosthetics and six hours in the makeup chair.

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Klum postponed her 2012 Halloween party until December due to Hurricane Sandy, but still showed off her golden Cleopatra costume.

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She kept is relatively simple in 2014 wearing a butterfly bodysuit with large wings. Her Victoria’s Secret training came in handy.